Meet Our Faculty & Staff

The Doctor of Business Administration (DBA) is a professional doctorate that emphasizes the application of theory to actual business issues. The DBA program will help candidates develop proficiency in applied research by improving their methodological and analytical skills. A guidance committee assists doctoral students in planning a rigorous program of multidisciplinary study. Courses span major areas of business administration, including accounting, information systems, finance, logistics and supply chain management, marketing, organizational behavior, human resource management, leadership, operations management, strategic management, and research methodology for examining business problems empirically. Courses provide an interdisciplinary perspective and the focus is on practitioner engagement through research, creative scholarship, and production of works for publication in reputable professional and academic journals.

Executive Team

Dr. Ekin Pellegrini

Director of Executive EducationCo-Director, UMSL DBA

Ekin Pellegrini is an Associate Professor of Global Leadership and Management at the College of Business Administration. Her research interests include mentoring and leadership, specifically in an international context. Ekin Pellegrini’s research has been published in the Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Management, Journal of Vocational Behavior, and Group and Organization Management among other journals. Her Ph.D. in organizational behavior management is from University of Miami, FL. She was previously Human Resources manager in AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, and Accenture. Dr. Pellegrini teaches Leadership, International Management, and Organizational Behavior at the PMBA, MBA, and undergraduate levels, as well as at the doctoral level in I/O Psychology PhD program. Dr. Pellegrini is the recipient of the Anheuser-Busch Excellence in Teaching Award in 2014.

Dr. Thomas Eyssell

Associate Dean & Director of Graduate StudiesCo-Director, UMSL DBA

Thomas Eyssell, Ph.D., CSA, joined the UMSL Finance and Legal Studies Department in 1986, and has directed the College’s graduate programs since 1999. He chairs the department and oversees both the credit and noncredit CFP Board-registered UMSL Financial Planning programs, which prepare students to sit for the CFP exam. Dr. Eyssell is a long-time member of the University of Missouri System Retirement and Staff Benefits Committee, of member of the board of the Financial Planning Association of Missouri, and a past president of the Academy of Financial Services, a national academic organization devoted to the study of issues and practices in personal financial planning and advising. His research has been published in the Journal of Consumer Affairs, the Journal of Financial Planning, the Financial Services Review, the Journal of Banking and Finance, the Financial Review, and Financial Management, among others. Currently, Dr. Eyssell’s research is focused on the accuracy of credit reporting data and the impacts of errors on consumer credit scores.

Francesca Ferrari

Administrative Director

Francesca Ferrari is the administrative director of the DBA program and the director of graduate business programs. She joined the graduate business office in 2001.

She received her undergraduate degree in economics and commerce from the University of Bari, Italy. Her graduate thesis was in applied geography. She received her MBA from the University of Missouri-St. Louis. Francesca is a UM System ALDP (Administrative Leadership Development Program) fellow and an UMSL Management Foundations Institute graduate.

Rebecca Leathers

Administrative Associate

Rebecca Leathers is the administrative associate for the University of Missouri-St. Louis Doctor of Business Administration program. She joined the UMSL Graduate Business Programs in 2017 but has been a part of the University of Missouri System since 2014. Prior to coming to UMSL, Rebecca was part of the Vice Chancellor of University Advancement’s office at Missouri S&T in Rolla, MO, where she worked closely with donors and alumni. Rebecca has a B.S. in business administration with an emphasis in finance and a B.S. in biology with an emphasis in zoology.

DBA Faculty Mentors

As a member of the University of Missouri-St Louis DBA program, you will have the opportunity to work with some of our finest faculty as mentors and colleagues. DBA faculty are committed to educating practitioner-scholars who connect business theory to practice. They will guide you through the program and help you develop and focus research ideas to satisfy your intellectual curiosity. During your program, you will be challenged to review the body of literature relevant to your interests, develop research questions, undertake original, applied research and present and publish your findings.

Dr. James F. Campbell

Dr. James F. Campbell received his Ph.D. in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from the University of California – Berkeley. He teaches courses in Logistics, Operations Management, Location Modeling, Analytics and Supply Chain Management. He has worked with the UMSL College of Business Ph.D. program since its beginning and has served on dissertation and thesis committees for students at Missouri University of Science & Technology, Hong Kong Polytechnic University, Monash University (Melbourne, Australia), and Ecole Polytechnique de Montreal. Dr. Campbell’s research centers around modeling and optimization of transportation, logistics and supply chain systems, and he has worked with public and private sector organizations in Canada, Australia and the U.S. His recent research interests include hub location and transportation network design, drone delivery, inventory modeling, logistics for snow removal, school bus routing and barge transportation on the Upper Mississippi River. He has over 80 publications in leading academic and practitioner journals. He is Associate Editor of Transportation Research–Part B, Transportation Science and OMEGA: The International Journal of Management Science and he serves on the editorial boards of Journal of Business Logistics and the International Journal of Revenue Management.

Dr. Hung-Gay Fung

Dr. Hung-Gay Fung is the Y.S. Tsiang professor of Chinese Studies and Curators’ Distinguished Professor of Finance in the Department of Finance and Legal Studies at the University of Missouri-St. Louis, where he served as the Department Chair for 5 years. He has organized several China-related business conferences held in St. Louis, U.S., and in Beijing, China. In addition, he has conducted executive training seminars on China for Mastercard International, World Trade Center, and St. Louis School District Cooperative. He has given many lectures on China in local conferences, clubs, middle and high schools, and universities in St. Louis.

Dr. Fung has been recognized as one of the top 100 Finance scholars in the world – He has published over 200 scholarly papers related to financial market issues, international finance, and Chinese markets in scholarly journals. Currently, he is the editor of three Journals: Chinese Economy (published by Taylor and Francis); International Review of Accounting, Banking and Finance; and International Journal of Business and Economics. He has also published 9 books on Chinese economy, Chinese capital markets, and international finance.

Dr. Gerald Yong Gao

Professor of Marketing

Dr. Gerald Yong Gao is a Professor of Marketing at College of Business Administration, University of Missouri-St. Louis. He received his BA in Economics from Peking University and PhD in Marketing from The University of Hong Kong. His research interests include marketing and innovation strategies, export, FDI performance, and strategic orientations, with a particular emphasis on emerging markets. His papers have been published in scholarly journals such as Administrative Science Quarterly, Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, Journal of Operations Management, International Journal of Research in Marketing, Journal of International Marketing, Management International Review, Journal of World Business, and International Marketing Review, among others. He has won several research and teaching awards including Anheuser-Bush Award for Excellence in Teaching and Douglas E. Durand Award for Research Excellence. He currently serves on the editorial board of Journal of International Marketing and Asia Pacific Journal of Management.

Dr. Mary Lacity

Curators’ Distinguished Professor of Information Systems

Dr. Lacity is Curators’ Distinguished Professor of Information Systems and an International Business Fellow at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. She is also a Senior Editor of MIS Quarterly Executive and on the Editorial Boards for Journal of Information Technology, MIS Quarterly Executive, IEEE Transactions on Engineering Management, Journal of Strategic Information Systems, and Strategic Outsourcing: An International Journal. She is a Certified Outsourcing Professional®, Industry Advisor for the Everest Group, and Co-editor of the Palgrave Series: Work, Technology, and Globalization. Her research focuses on the delivery of business and IT services through global sourcing and automation. She has given keynote speeches and executive seminars world-wide and has served as an expert witness for the US Congress. She was inducted into the IAOP’s Outsourcing Hall of Fame in 2014, one of only three academics to ever be inducted. She has published 25 books, most recently Service Automation: Robots and the Future of Work (Brookes Publishing, 2016, UK, co-author Leslie Willcocks) and Nine Keys to World-class Business Process Outsourcing (Bloomsbury Publishing, London, 2015; co-author Leslie Willcocks). Her publications have appeared in the Harvard Business Review, Sloan Management Review, MIS Quarterly, MIS Quarterly Executive, IEEE Computer, Communications of the ACM, and many other academic and practitioner outlets. Before earning her Ph.D. at the University of Houston, she worked as a consultant for Technology Partners International and as a systems analyst for Exxon Company, USA.

Dr. Dinesh A. Mirchandani

Professor and Information Systems Department Chair

Dr. Dinesh A. Mirchandani’s research contributes to the field of information systems in three primary areas, which include (1) information systems planning practices in organizations, (2) implementation of large scale information systems, and (3) adoption of electronic commerce and electronic government. His research has been published in academic journals such as Communications of the ACM, International Journal of Electronic Commerce, Journal of Organizational Computing and Electronic Commerce, Journal of Global Information Management, Information & Management, Information Systems Journal, and Omega. He have also presented his research at international conferences including the Americas Conference on Information Systems, International Conference on Information Systems, European Conference on Information Systems, and the Hawaii International Conference on System Sciences. As the Chair of UMSL's IS Department, Mirchandani helps coordinate the department's events and organizations such as the Global Game Jam, Women's Hackathon, XtremeIT!, Information Systems Career Conference, Information Systems Programming Club, Information Systems Mentoring Club, and the Information Systems Advisory Board.

Dr. Stephen R. Moehrle

Professor and Accounting Department Chair

Dr. Stephen R. (Steve) Moehrle is a Professor and Accounting Department Chair. He received his Ph.D. from Indiana University in 1998 and has served on the faculties at the University of California, Irvine, the University of Southern California, and the University of Missouri – St. Louis. Steve has won several research and teaching awards including the American Accounting Association’s Accounting Horizons Best Paper Award, the Indiana University Lieber Teaching Associate Award, the University of Missouri-St. Louis Chancellor’s Award for Teaching Excellence and the Missouri Society of CPAs Outstanding Educator Award. He has published articles in academic journals including The Accounting Review, Accounting Horizons, the Journal of Accounting and Public Policy, Research in Accounting Regulation, the Journal of Accounting and the Public Interest, the Journal of Accountancy, the CPA Journal, and the Financial Analysts’ Journal. He co-authored “The CPA Profession: Opportunities, Responsibilities, and Services,” which is published by the American Institute of CPAs. Steve also served for several years as the Senior Associate Editor of Research in Accounting Regulation.

Dr. Ekin Pellegrini

Director of Executive Education

Ekin Pellegrini is an Associate Professor of Global Leadership and Management at the College of Business Administration. Her research interests include mentoring and leadership, specifically in an international context. Ekin Pellegrini’s research has been published in the Journal of International Business Studies, Journal of Management, Journal of Vocational Behavior, and Group and Organization Management among other journals. Her Ph.D. in organizational behavior management is from University of Miami, FL. She was previously Human Resources manager in AstraZeneca Pharmaceuticals, Pfizer Pharmaceuticals, and Accenture. Dr. Pellegrini teaches Leadership, International Management, and Organizational Behavior at the PMBA, MBA, and undergraduate levels, as well as at the doctoral level in I/O Psychology PhD program. Dr. Pellegrini is the recipient of the Anheuser-Busch Excellence in Teaching Award in 2014.